2nd attempt to restart North Anna nuclear unit failsMay 29 - Joe Macenka Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
Dominion Virginia Power's second attempt to restart one of the two nuclear reactors at its North Anna facility after a refueling outage failed when a valve closure led to decreasing steam generator levels. A report from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said an operations crew at North Anna, in Louisa County some 45 miles northwest of Richmond, manually shut down the Unit 2 reactor at 3:07 p.m. Tuesday after a main feed water valve "spuriously closed." The reason for the closure was not immediately known, the NRC said. All control rods fully inserted into the core following the manual reactor trip, and decay heat was being removed, the NRC said. The second attempt by the Richmond-based utility to restart Unit 2 occurred May 21, and the reactor was operating at 98 percent of capacity when Tuesday's event occurred. Unit 2 was originally idled April 7 for a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage. But when crews initially tried to restart the reactor, it reached 60 percent of capacity May 10 before operators detected excessive vibrations in the exciter, which is used during startup to initiate the flow of electricity from the generator to the grid, so the unit was shut down for additional repairs. North Anna's Unit 1 has remained at full power. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=28773579 |